Daily Archives: July 5, 2014

This summer I am continuing to work on the “Re-imaging and re-imagining Choreometrics” project by preparing some more materials for future grant applications so that we can start developing some of the ideas we have for the future of Choreometrics. We hope to secure funding to start digitizing a large portion of Lomax’s dance film clips, and we are working with Anna Lomax Wood and others at the Association for Cultural Equity to prioritize the collections that we want to digitize first. We also have other project ideas in the pipeline that will make use of these digital clips through analytical methods from various fields and collaboration by experts in those fields.

I have also been meeting with Todd Harvey and Lotus Norton-Wisla at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Lotus is doing a summer internship at the AFC on a fellowship from the Dance Heritage Coalition. She is an archivist and is spending time this summer going through the Choreometrics database to collate data and determine the quality of the films in storage. With input from Anna Lomax Wood and others, Lotus has identified a few of the collections in the Choreometrics collection as priorities for digitization: the Cord library, the presentation films, the Master Library, and the T-series. Todd and Lotus are also running a conservation report on the film reels so that we can determine the urgency of digitizing these clips.

Finally, we are thinking ahead to the Alan Lomax Centennial in January 2015. We will be helping to plan events to mark this celebration, including fundraisers that will benefit all projects related to the preservation and further development of Alan Lomax’s Cantometrics and Choreometrics collections, among others.

We are moving forward on these various threads and will report on our progress as the summer continues!